Amazingly enough, I like both of them !


The Impy felt good, although I do not care for the key on the dash.

Minor gripe, though - all in the all, the car looked good, and felt decent, although with top speed limited to 20 MPH it's not like I could really romp & stomp.

No, it's not RWD as it should be, but it's not a bad stop-gap, either.

Funny thing is, it did not seem much bigger inside than our Saturn L300 - weird.

Power rating wise, 240HP is too meager - the new Bonneville gets a NorthStar V8 w/ 275 hp , and the GTP gets a 260HP 3800 V6 - why did Chevy get left out ?

Oh, as I side note, I drove the GTP right after the Impy - IMHO the Impy has it hands down in overall feel. I did not like the paddle shifters - just seemed "gimmicky" - and whoever put the cruise stalk on the lower RH of the steering column should be beat over the head with 50LB cinder blocks that are shaped (and thrown in order ! ) to spell out Ergonomics.

The Silverado SS was a pleasant surprise - I was again limited to 20MPH, but where I did punch it I could tell it has some "oomph" - again, not as much as we would have liked, but it felt right behind the wheel - good seats, good instrument panel w/ white background/black needles , easy to judge & drive, and actually practical as a truck.

I have seen them advertised for around 29K - if I had to swap my SS and my 4X Suburban for one truck , this would be worthwhile to do it for.

Wonder how mod-friendly the 345HP 6.0 liter is ?

All in all, I was pleased.

I guess the GM/SS brainwashing has been successful with me.


Britt

 

Bonneville gets Northstar?!?! I'm doubting this....That's Caddilac's baby....

 

Drove in those myself as well on Saturday. What time were you there? There was a gentleman that took a pic of the Impy SS...

My impression was I didn't like the Impala so much since it was pretty similar to any other ordinary Impala, the difference being the output which as you pointed out you couldn't really feel.

The GP Comp. G was very nice. I loved the guages/paddle shifter/HUD and the brakes. The interior seemed very small for some reason...

SAAB 9-3, SWEET.... I thought it was miles above the previous 9-3 but didn't get a chance to drive the convertible.

Z06 what can I say?? AMAZING

Silverado SS was too smooth for that truck that it was almost unbelievable. (IN a good way)

Escalade (Most refined ride in any truck I have driven period)

Hummer: No hill descent option, you just drive down and it was scary.. The Jeep Librty seemed more capable on the descent than the Hummer but it was a nice ride...

Overall it was a very good event and in the parking lot I noticed a lot of non-GM vehicles which is a good sign...hopefully the people there liked what they saw.

(XLR was on display and I got to see the top close: WOW)
definitely a winner along with the SRX which was also sweet

 

I was in a green "western" shirt w/ long sleeves, blue jeans, and tan elephant boots.


Drove the Z06 around 12:00 after about a 30 minute wait - my wife drove an auto version & completely pansied it around the track !

Not me - I had a cool co-pilot for my "6 speed, 405HP ride" .
(Stolen & paraphrased from the '00 Camaro catalog. )

Drove the Hummer around 3:40 or so after a 40 minute wait.

I liked the way it felt - in fact, my co-pilot for that was telling me to gun it over the whoop-de-dos, so I obliged.

It's nice when you have GM employees that want to show off their vehicles.

While I was in line for the GTP I talked to a gal about the Camaro & Firebird line.

She had no news, but did have a comment:

"Scott Settlemire , the Camaro brand manager, (who is that guy , huh ? ) is still titled the Camaro brand manager ."

She was pleasing to the eye, and telling me potentially good news - I think I'm in love.


Britt

 

Its alreaddy been confirmed...

 

THe Aurora 4.0L V8 was Northstar based, so was the 4.4L DOHC V8 in the GXP concept

 

Gotcha....I was just a little surprised. They've spent so much time making Northstar and Caddillac synonymous. Are they going to call the engine a Northstar or something different?

 

Soon enough you will be seeing these on the road as the 2004 production 275hp Bonneville GXP.